Disclaimer: If I owned X-Men Evolution, many things would be different. Jean Grey would not be in severe denial, Amanda would have a bigger part and Logan and Ororo would be carrying on a romance in the background. As none of this is true (bugger all), I don't own X-Men Evolution. Happy now?
A/N: Boo! Only a few chapters left (WAHHH!!), and I still don't have an idea for a sequel! Please, help me out here! I'm desperate! I want to try to start a sequel before the season premeire screws me over plot wise by maybe actually doing something with Amanda! Now, though this would make me happy, I prefer to work within the lines of current continuity, which causes problems. So please, please, if you want to see at least the beginnings of a sequel, HELP!
A/NII: Thanks sooooo much for all your reviews! Yay! You DID remember me! I'm touched. Oh, and Hikari? I actually do notice when someone who's reviewed more than once doesn't. I do my best to keep track of loyal fans!! Thank you guys, I was getting depressed that no one remembered.
Dedication: To Foxglove33 for "Morally Shady", an AU look at the episode "Strategy X" where Toad may actually join the X-Men!
Holy next chapter, Batman! (too much daytime tv for Jimaine…)
Chapter XVIII
BAMF!
Shadowcat shrieked when there was an explosion of sulfur and blue in front of her. Something fell into her arms, a dead, leaden blue weight. "Some thing must have happened!" she exclaimed. "Someone get Amanda --"
Cyclops picked the unconscious Amanda up and threw her over his shoulder as Shadowcat handed Kurt to the newly-emerged Wolverine, who was panting, with a wide-eyed and frightened Leech still clinging to his back. "Cover our exit, Storm!" Wolverine called to the woman over his head. Glowing white eyes sparked with inner lightning as she summoned the thunderstorm that had been brewing all morning. Before the thunderheads peeked she was throwing lightning around; a warning for the FOH members who had scrambled their way outside. Thunder rolled in and hail pelted down from the thunderheads while lightning crackled around the form of the woman who had been called a goddess.
The X-Men retreated with their wayward fellows unhindered; such was Storms control. Spyke and Jean hauled the unconscious pair into the van as the others scrambled in. Be prepared for us back there, Chuck! The elf and Amanda are unconscious and FOH's on our heels.
*Thank you, Wolverine. The New Mutants are more than prepared to deal with any threat that follows you home. Your concern is getting them back here and to the medilab if they're injured,* Xavier ordered.
The van roared through gates that shut behind them and around the back. "Whoa, like, check out the New Mutants!"
The eight younger students were carefully arrayed in a fanlike pattern across the front wall of the Institute, focused on the gate. Every one was in the stance Logan had taught them and because the X-Men hadn't seen a single sign of them on their way in, they knew the New Mutants were invisible to anyone coming in. The sounds of the beginnings of a rout reached the van just as Wolverine pulled it into a garage in the back.
Beast grabbed both Amanda and Kurt, one over each shoulder, and knuckled his way back to the medilab. This entrance was built specifically for quick access to the medilab, and Beast had been waiting there. *Cyclops, Jean, Shadowcat, Spyke -- I want you back outside to help the New Mutants. They're holding their own, but need help to turn the tide. Storm, you too - again, Iceman is doing an adequate job of leading, but I suspect that FOH is afraid of you, which will help.*
One our way, Charles "You heard him, move! Rogue," Storm put a hand on the girls shoulder. "The only reason Charles doesn't want you out there is because your abilities would be of no aid. Do you really want to absorb a mutant-hater?"
Rogue vehemently shook her head.
"You'll be more help to Leech. Go on, you have a job too!" Storm took off, blue eyes blanking, and Rogue knelt in front of the frighten mutant child.
"Leech?"
"Yeah?" the kid replied, and Rogue noticed a faint New York City accent.
"Mah name's Rogue. C'mon, let's get yah inside. Yah hungry?" Rogue grinned at his enthusiastic nod. Somehow, this boy - he couldn't have been more then ten - brought out her first-ever feeling of maternal instinct. "Good. Yah mind if we stop by the medilab on our way to the kitchen? Mah brother's in there, an' Ah wanna know what's wrong with him."
Leech thought this over. The 'lab' isn't a good thing - but she said something else, like 'medi'. Did she mean, like medicine? He glanced up at the teenager. She did not fit his scope of normal - but then, the only one who fit into his idea of normal in the last few months was the blue person. But she's a mutant! something in his argued. You can trust 'er! "Sure," he finally answered.
"Where- " was the first thing Rogue heard when she and Leech reached the medilab. A dazed and confused Kurt was sitting up in one of the beds. "Amanda! Is she alright?" he demanded of Beast.
"I believe that it's merely exhaustion, sir Wagner, the result of teleporting with a concussion, a passenger, and without any extra energy to spare for it. Your passenger, I fear, may have suffered more than you did."
In the short time it had taken Kurt to wake up Logan and Beast had attached Amanda to three or four machines he couldn't name in addition to a heart-rate monitor. She was still unconscious.
*
Girlfriend unconscious or no, Kurt Wagner still had to eat.
And eat and eat and eat.
"Would you like, at least slow down to chew?" Kitty requested in a half-disgusted, half-astonished tone.
Kurt didn't even dignify that with an answer.
Once he'd polished off what Ororo was sure he could eat without his stomach literally exploding, Kurt decided to track down his sister and discover exactly what had taken them so long. "Jean?" he asked, poking his head down the stairs and into the rec room. "Where's Rogue?"
The redhead on the couch closed her eyes for a moment, then looked back up at Kurt. "I can't sense her at all on the Institute grounds, which probably means that she's with Leech. He's in the first room in the guy's wing, so all the other rooms are out of range of his powers."
Kurt thought about this. "This means that I'm going to have to actually use the stairs, doesn't it?"
"You're in no shape to 'port, Kurt," Scott pointed out.
"Stairs! The indignity of it!" Kurt scoffed as he left. Scott and Jean exchanged a glance and burst out laughing.
"Only Kurt could make walking up a staircase sound like corporal punishment!"
*
"Rogue?"
"Kurt! Leech, meet mah brother, Kurt Wagner," Rogue gestured. "Kurt, meet Leech. An' don't try to 'port - yah can't."
"Which probably makes you happy, mein schwester," he teased.
Leech looked strangely at the elf, then at Rogue. "Okay, if you're not going to tell me your name, then what do you do?"
Rogue looked to Kurt for help, and he only grinned. "He can't possibly be afraid of you. After all, you can't hurt him!"
The southern girl nodded. "Ah - When Ah touch a persons skin, Ah suck out their abilities and memories, leaving them unconscious."
"Just like me!"
"Ah never thought of it that way, but yeah. Ah guess. So, Kurt, as Ah doubt yah came up here to get me to tell Leech about mah powers, why did yah come find me?"
"Rogue, what happened? I mean, while I was out. I know 'Manda and I spent all night there, but why did it take you so long to find us? Couldn't Scott keep up?"
"Ah - Ah guess what happened is that Scott lost y'all when yah were stowed away in Duncan's trunk, so he and Rahne came back here. The Professor couldn't figure out why he couldn't find yah, and exhausted himself and Cerebro trying. Apparently, after Ms Munroe got a tip this morning with the address of their headquarters on it, it occurred to the Professor to look for the minds of the people guarding yah. We got dragged outta school when he found yah, and the Professor sent Kitty, Logan and Ah in to get yah while the others provided a distraction. Then Ah'm not really sure what happened, but Logan and Leech came out just as yah and Amanda 'ported in, unconscious. Why'd yah 'port, Kurt? If yah couldn't phase yah knew yah weren't in good enough condition to teleport!"
Kurt shrugged. "I was - more than a little fuzzy at the time. No pun intended," he shot an amused look at Leech, who had his hands over his mouth to keep from laughing. "I think . . . I think one man got past Wolverine, and he was about to shoot 'Manda and I. To tell the truth, I was really more worried about 'Manda."
"That girl's pretty amazing, Kurt. And Ah'm your sister - almost nothing's good enough for mah brother!" Kurt snorted a laughed at the expression on Rogue's face when she said that. "But she spent the night in a prison because of who she chose to date and came out still able to laugh. Ah like her."
"So do I," Kurt murmured. "Do you think Beast would kick me out again, if I went to check on her?"
Rogue shook her head. "Nah. Go on. Ah'm gonna ask the Professor if he's contacted Cassie, or her parents."
"That's a somewhat scary idea. Mein Gott, how are we going to get out of this? She's the only one who knows we're mutants!"
"Ah don't know, but Ah hope the Professor has some ideas!"
*
Kurt slipped silently into the medilab as only a furred creature with bare feet can, not making a sound on the tile floor. "Um, herr McCoy?"
"Wyah!" Beast jumped, doing a 180 to face Kurt. "You know, my fellow blue-furred comrade - that is kind of frightening. I assume you are here to check on the condition of Miss Sefton, regardless of the fact that you would have been appraised the moment anything of importance occurred."
Kurt shrugged, a wry smile on his face. "So I was worried! It's a human trait . . . For lack of a better term. Am I getting kicked out again, or may I stay?"
"It would probably be better if you stayed. After all, Miss Sefton has only encountered me once, and I daresay that no matter how well-intentioned, awakening to discover only myself in a strange place would have bad results."
Shaking his head, Kurt sat down on the bed next to hers. "I don't know, Beast. I think you're underestimating her," the pause afterward was pregnant, with Kurt working up the nerve to ask a question. "Ah - Beast?"
"Yes Kurt, it's almost certain that she will wake up. Within the next twenty-four hours is likely, even."
Kurt breathed a sigh of relief. "Danke." Curling his feet up so his toes grasped the edge of the bed, Kurt settled down to wait.
*
There was a white light.
Well, at least I'm going to heaven. Take that, Friends of Humanity!
The blinding light slowly became clearer, and Amanda recognized its shape as rectangular. You are so NOT telling me that the Light of Heaven is in the shape of a rectangle. She mulled over this as the shape - and the ceiling around it - became clearer. Which means I'm not dead. I know Kurt said something about his 'porting having limits, but this is ridiculous! The longer she stared at that light, the worse her pounding headache got. Alright. As clichéd as it sounds: I hurt too much to be dead.
She let out a moan, hoping it would alert whoever was watching her to the fact that she'd woken up.
"About time, Miss Sefton, we were beginning to get worried," she heard the bustling that seemed to accompany every nurse and doctor, and found her unpleasant view of the florescent light blocked by a large expanse of blue. "Don't worry, you're at the Institute. And you probably would only like one thing: to be rid of that headache."
"I hurt too much to be dead," she muttered wryly. "Can I sit up?"
Beast considered. "Yes, I believe so. The mostly likely explanation for your collapse along with Kurt's was that his mutation also somehow tapped into your energy to complete the teleport when he couldn't supply what was needed. So you do not have a concussion, or any injury at all, for that matter. Merely a severe migraine."
"Merely?" she questioned even as she downed the indicated tablets. "I would be willing to bet that my headache is annoying the telepaths."
"You would be right about that, Miss Sefton, if it weren't for the fact that neither Jean nor I can read your mind. Therefore, thankfully, we are safe from your migraine."
"Xavier - whisper, please. He was out of bed only a few hours ago, and if he is asleep, I would prefer he remain so," Beast gestured to the sleeping Kurt.
Xavier nodded. "Yes, well. I'm afraid there are other things that we are not safe from, Amanda, up to and including your family. After being out all night last night, and it being nearly seven pm currently, I am not really surprised to discover that your parents, brother and cousin have showed up on my doorstep. The only problem is: how do I handle this?"
Amanda groaned, and put her head in her hands. Oh, all I really want to do is find a nice corner to have hysterics in. I managed to hold on for this long, I deserve to have a breakdown! My family discovering the X-Men is not going to help anything. In fact, it may make matters worse, because I don't know how they'll react. I mean, I'd like to think they'll be okay with it, but . . .
"Miss Sefton?"
"Oh, just call me Amanda already!" she growled. "Can I assume you're telling me this because you don't want to alienate me by doing something I disagree with?"
Xavier started. She's really fast on the uptake, this one. I'm not entirely surprised she discovered Kurt. "Yes. How do you think your family would react to this unique situation?"
"You mean what is my parents stand on mutants, and would they let their daughter date one? I think so," she shrugged helplessly. "I mean, I can't be sure, but I would guess they would screech a few times and that would be all."
"Are you sure they wouldn't run simply for lack of torch material in America?" inquired a slightly sleepy voice to her right. Kurt had woken up.
Amanda smiled to see him awake and obviously on his way to recovery. "That's my take on it, but you'll have to decide. I'm not the one taking the risk."
Xavier nodded and, satisfied, rolled out, telepathically beckoning Beast out with him.
Kurt had his toes against the bed and was sitting on his heels, tail wrapped lightly around his legs and spaded tip twitching. She wasn't used to seeing him like this - he was dressed normally, without his image inducer, in khaki cargo pants and a white t-shirt. Usually when he had his image inducer off he wore his uniform, but as he'd been wearing it for the last day she imagined he would rather wear anything else. She, however, was still in the same black jeans and dark green shirt she'd been wearing all yesterday and throughout their -
- You're not allowed to have hysterics yet, girl, calm down.
"I'm sorry," he said simply.
"You're what?!" she replied in a yell that nearly shocked Kurt off the other bed. "For what? For being the victim of a group of morons who decided that because your skin's the wrong color you're not human? None of this was your fault, Kurt, and I refuse to let you try to take the blame. Any of it!" she snapped when it looked as if he was going to object. "I got into this of my own free will, elf, and knew what I was getting into. Well, I didn't expect to get kidnapped and held hostage, but that's just a nastier version of what I was expecting."
Kurt just looked at Amanda from the other bed. "You're amazing. Every time I turn around I expect to find you in one stage of freaking out or another, and every time you take it all in, accept it, and deal. Which is probably what I should be expecting by now."
Amanda sent him a slightly tipsy grin. "Well, that's very interesting, because I'm about this far away from totally breaking down, and holding it off probably isn't very healthy. But if the Professor decides to invite my family in, them finding me in a heap on the floor would be a bad thing, wouldn't you say?"
He chuckled and moved to sit next to her. When he was settled (he couldn't figure out what to do with his tail until Amanda rolled her eyes and put it around her waist) Amanda rested her head on his shoulder.
The entirely adorable picture they made lasted all of three minutes before her family invaded. And screamed.
"Whoa, whoa, Mom, Dad, Stefan, Cassie! Calm down!" Amanda yelled. This silenced her family, all of whom were staring in shock at the blue elf holding their daughter.
"Meet Kurt."
